River of Time
by twix012
Summary: After a mysterious and catastrophic accident, Frisk has been catapulted backwards through time, before Flowey became a flower, before Toriel's and Asgore's divorce, before the downfall of the Royal family, before Chara, Frisk has found themselves in the very beginning of it all, and the only way back to their future...is the long way around, and getting there might tear them apart.
1. Chapter 1 Ripping Holes Through The Sky

**Chapter 1** Ripping Holes Through The Sky

So, this story has been giving me trouble since I've started it in 2017, it's hard to work on, but the plot and concept keeps me coming back, I know how it ends, but at the moment of writing this, I only have two chapters to show for it.

But I've decided to post it to see what you guys think, if you like it, don't be shy to tell me, I want feedback to see if I got what it takes to finish this monster of a story.

* * *

They were falling, and hard with such velocity that they could barely breathe.

But they weren't even sure if they were falling _down_ , all around them was flashes of blended color and images they couldn't make out-

Wait, no, they weren't falling _down_ _-_

They were falling _backwards_. . .

They quickly became disoriented, their head spinning, becoming dizzy, they tried to grab for something- _anything_ inside the void _,_ but found nothing in vain, where were they? What was happening? No- _What happened?_

They tried to focus on their powers, they hadn't used it for a while and they had no earthly idea if it would help, but it was all they had, maybe if they could just go back to their last save point-

They swallowed down the anxious lump in their throat, closing their eyes and tried to clear their mind. . .

A cold sweat came over them as they found that they couldn't access their powers _at all_ _,_ it felt horrifyingly empty, it like it was out of reach, unavailable to them, frozen.

Panic attempted to swallow Frisk whole, but there had to be _something_ they could do to get out of here, wherever they were, Determination filled them and focused harder, grasping at the ends of whatever they could of their diminishing powers.

 _C'mon, c'mon…_ _ **c'mon!**_

As they did, they seemed to spiral out of control in the void even faster than before, they screamed and closed their eyes, and then-!

Gravity seemed to pull down at them, _hard._

The sound of rocks being broken was just barely heard as Frisk plummeted down, afraid for their life, they braced themselves for whatever this insanity threw at them next, still trying their hardest to focus on bringing their powers back.

And then, they hit solid ground, the blunt force knocking Frisk out cold.

. .. …. . . . . . .. .

… . . . . . .. . .

. . ..

..

At some point, they slowly awoken piece by piece their senses begrudgingly returned.

Familiar comforting voices were heard in the far off distance, Frisk was having trouble recognizing who they belonged to in their dazed state, still they strained their ears to hear, trying to distract themselves from the pain that filled their body.

" _But mommy! I heard something! We should go see, someone might be hurt_!" a young voice pulled, great concern tinting his tiny voice.

" _Okay Asriel dear, I_ _promise I_ _will go investigate soon, but first we must hurry and get you dressed if we want to make it to the ball,"_ an older female voice replied.

"Asriel?" Frisk croaked out, finding quickly that their throat was so dry that it hurt to speak, but that was the least of their worries, what was going on?!

They attempted opening their eyes despite the drumming excruciating pain that pounded at their brain.

At first everything was blur, but after a few moments of blinking and staring at the beam of light that shined down from the rocky ceiling, their vision soon seemed to clear up, relief coming over them as things came into clarity.

As they laid there, it became clear that they were obviously back in the Underground, in the Ruins were they first fell…

Except this was all wrong, everything was completely and utterly _wrong_.

By the sound of it, Frisk had landed themselves in some sort of universe where Asriel was still a normal child monster living happily with his parents. . .

They touched the ground beneath them with their splayed out fingers, it felt incredibly harder than they remembered, and to their surprise, found that there were no flowers, _yeah_ , no wonder it had hurt so badly.

…A thought passed over their mind, one that seemed plausible and the most logical. . .

Despite Frisk's pain, confusion, and fear, the mystery of it all enticed them, a lot like it had when they first fell, they just _had_ to investigate what was going on and what had happened, and lying there making theories could only get them so far, besides it was the only choice they had right now anyway.

But that was easier said than done, their entire body was completely worn out from the trip, or whatever just happened to them, and they were pretty sure a few things were broken, but they just _had_ to get up.

At the corner of their eye is when they saw it, the familiar shining light of Determination that twinkled for them and always healed their pain, the SAVE point.

Glad that they still had their Power, they tiredly smiled with relief, but let out a small pitiful sigh when they realized they were still going to have to move their body.

It was only a few feet away… they could do this, right? Of course they could!

Frisk held their breath and groaned as they pushed themselves up with their elbows, pain scattering up and down their back and head, realizing that their legs were mostly numb, several bones were likely broken and worse, but that would no longer an issue once they reached the SAVE point.

With a long, deep, breath, they forcibly turned themselves over and hissed with pain as they got into the best crawl position that they could muster and slowly began to hobble forward.

The trip felt forever, but their Determination only increased as they got closer to the light, and with a reach of a hand-

Activated it, their Determination stuttering as they read the location quizzically.

'RUINS – Beginning'

They sighed as their body was completely healed from the wounds, pain vanishing instantly, gaining their strength back, thankful to be able to stand again.

Frisk was now able to look around clearly, seeing that _yes_ , there weren't any golden flowers to be found, they walked over and stared at the doorway thoughtfully.

They were afraid of their theory being right, but they just _had_ to see.

Walking through, they entered the empty room with the grassy patch in the middle, for a moment, they almost expected Flowey to pop up and smile, the one he used as a mask, and greet them like he had the first time they met…

… _But nothing happened_ , Frisk let out small anxious sigh and pushed on further, entering the next room with the two stairways, it was empty as well, this universe's Asriel and Toriel must have longed walked off.

They found that all the puzzles that they remembered were either off or not there at all, they were thankful-not that they couldn't figure them out, they just had a lingering feeling that it was probably best to not to attract too much attention to themselves right now. . .

It wasn't until half way through that they realized that hadn't even seen any monsters yet or at all, and then they remembered what Toriel had said about a ball, they must have _all_ gone to it.

Frisk hurried through the last few passage ways, growing impatient and anxious now, and soon, they reached what should have been the Dreamurr home, but instead, what they found was another purple hall way, even the tree was different, it was full of leaves.

At the end of the hallway were stairs that lead downward toward the cold path to Snowdin, it was like the house had just _vanished._

…Or… not even been built _yet_. . .

Something gripped at Frisk from the inside, it confirmed their fear.

Frisk wasn't in another universe, they were in the _past_ , before Asriel's death, before the Dreamurr family was torn apart, they remembered Chara, they weren't sure if they were here yet or not, but the same something that was gripping at Frisk told them that they really shouldn't stick around to find out.

They thought about the SAVE point that they had activated, had they just _trapped_ themselves here?

Perhaps they should try resetting, in all their time having the Power, they had only felt the need to reset four times, but knowing how it worked, they hoped desperately it would take them to the timeline that they were originally supposed to be in.

Frisk took a breath and closed their eyes, and cleared their mind, focusing deeply on their Power.

 **. . . . . . .**

Everything went dark for a few moments before they found themselves in the familiar dark room, they expected to see the figures of their friends, but what stood in front of Frisk was the wispy gray shadows of everyone instead, both there and not there at the same time, and as they observed closer, the edges of the room seemed to be in a lost void, reminiscent of the same one they had been spun through.

Whatever had happened to them had clearly affected the base of their Power as well, like it was some kind of glitch.

Anxiety clawed further up inside Frisk, they had _no idea_ how to fix this, the only thing that they could think to do was continue on.

They wiped the tears that stung at their eyes, and with a nervous hard push, Reset.

 **.. . . . .. . .**

When the world came back into view, they found themselves back on the hard ground, their entire body being bombarded with familiar intruding pain, immediately, tears flooded Frisk's eyes, they were trapped in the past and there _was no way out._

Again, they heard Asriel and Toriel speak-

" _But mommy! I heard something! We should go see, someone might be hurt_!"

" _Okay Asriel dear, I will go investigate soon, but first we must hurry and get you dressed if we want to make it to the ball,"_

Frisk wanted to call out to them, they wanted so badly to talk to someone about this, or just get a hug really, they had never felt so alone in their entire life.

But now that they knew they were in the past, they remembered from watching movies and reading books that you should NEVER interfere and alter a timeline that you don't belong in, even if you mean well.

They couldn't call right now if they tried anyway, their throat was too dry.

So instead, they laid there and began to silently cry, their emotional pain matching physical pain, crying until they realized that at some point that Toriel was going to come back and probably investigate.

With teary eyes, Frisk pathetically began to slowly turn themselves over and crawl back to the SAVE point.

The second that Frisk was healed again, they began to run, speeding through the Ruins, running and running, until they were forced to slow to a stop once they ran out of breath… . . .

…And realizing… that they had no idea what they were doing and what they were going to do, they had no plan, all they knew is that they couldn't let the Dreamurr family find them.

They walked over to a hidden corner and sat down and tried to collect their thoughts.

After a moment of brainstorming, Frisk realized that they couldn't do anything but let history play through as it was supposed to, and they had a strong feeling that it was going to be incredibly frustrating to just avoid it and watch from the sidelines.

What if they messed up? What if they accidentally ran into someone or did something wrong and screwed everything up? Hm, _well_ . . . actually that probably wasn't going to be a problem, they could easily just go to their last SAVE or… Reset couldn't they? Or _not,_ they really didn't look forward to all that pain again.

But they had to do it, Frisk knew what the far future held for everyone in the Underground, and it was wonderful and beautiful, and if they had to suffer to get it right, then _so be it_.


	2. Chapter 2 Hide

**Chapter 2** Hide

Notes: Okay, so, I'm not fond of posting short chapters, but since this is still a work in progress, I'll likely add more later if all goes well.

* * *

Frisk sat there for a while, still trying to process it all. . .

Then, suddenly, they remembered their cell phone and pulled it out, quickly checking the contacts, and what they found only worsened their mood, all of the names were no longer readable, it was like the words had been turned into a scrambled mess, or as if they had been affected by a glitch just like their Powers, the 'call' option wasn't even there anymore.

Fortunately, the only thing that still worked on the phone were the universe boxes, which Frisk was tremendously thankful for, they had a feeling it would definitely come in handy.

 _Okay, okay…_ so, they were still able to store stuff, _great,_ what was next?

Sleep, where were they going to sleep? Or even rest, eat and hide at?

It occurred to them they never got to see the old city of Home, well, aside from what they got to see from the overlook from the Ruins, it seemed like the best place as any to go if it was as abandoned as they were told it was.

So with a resigned sigh, Frisk got back up and walked until they found the room that overlooked Home, it didn't look too different from the last time they saw it, still just a bunch of magnificent ancient buildings.

It looked exactly like the perfect place to hide.

The only problem now was how on earth were they going to get down there? It was at least forty feet down.

Frisk walked over closer and stuck their head out, looking around for any sort of way to get down, if they weren't so far up they would have considered jumping . . . but that was out of the question.

Suddenly a familiar kind voice echoed down the Ruins "hello? We heard a loud noise earlier- this is Queen Toriel, is anyone down here? Are you hurt?"

Frisk nearly gasped, looking over their shoulder, panicking, they looked back down over the edge, wincing, considering to jump was now back in question.

The urge to run to Toriel and hug her for dear life tore at Frisk, tears welling back in their eyes, but… _no_ , they had a duty to protect the timeline, _they knew better_.

 _That's_ when Frisk saw it, they had almost missed it, but noticed a line of bricks sticking out from the rest just a few feet beneath the lookout against the walls, it was like a secret stairway, a very, very dangerous secret stairway- yes, it was insane, but it was perfect for getting out and dodging Toriel just in time. . .

Well . . . here went something!

Frisk climbed onto the edge of the brick, their heart beating so fast as they looked over the edge and heard Toriel call out again, _she was getting closer_ _….._

"Do not be afraid, I can help!"

Taking the words to heart, Frisk lowered themselves down, maneuvering themselves to the other side of the building, their hands beginning to sweat as they clung onto the rough surface, they focused on finding that line of bricks they saw, trying to find their footing.

Toriel was close now, "hello?" but then a sigh of defeat " _what in the world made that sound_?"

Frisk closed their eyes tightly, their regret stinging into them, tears beginning to weld up in their eyes. . .

No, they couldn't do this right now, they had to focus getting down without getting hurt again, and once they did that, _then_ they could cry.

They opened their eyes, looking up for a second, almost hoping to see Toriel looking over and find them, they sniffled back a few tears and then looked down in attempt to find the next brick to step on, which didn't take them too long.

Slowly but surely, Frisk carefully walked on to the steps, keeping their focus on the wall and the next brick, pretending that they were sweating from the fear of falling, their hands keeping firmly pressed against the building.

After what _felt_ like practically forever and then eternity, Frisk finally got close enough, jumping down a few feet in anticipation to reach the ground.

Frisk looked all around them in wonder and amazement at the old city Ruins, despite the circumstances, they never been so happy to finally reach this place.


End file.
